Guard Dog

Condolences Raithe, that is terrible. And so sudden too.

Ok I think you are on to something here. I was investigating if any conferderate veterans turned up in the French Foreign Legion, or the British Army following Approtimax but I like this idea too. On a book note I'm now reading The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805 by Richard Zacks. As many of you know it was the Barbary Coast campaign where the line in the Marine Corps hymn "To the shores of Tripoli" came from. Fascinating reading.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone to whom that pertains. Happy Thursday to the rest of you folks. It's just me and the dogs today. But I'm cool with that. I'm grilling venison tonight and I've cut flank meat into strips that I'll put in the smoker to make jerky for the dogs. In the mean time I'm going to sit on the porch, drink my coffee, watch the dogs play in the yard, and enjoy the cool weather.

I've never read the book, the movie was ok, the best part being a brit and an aussie trying to speak with southern accents . But I'm thinking a completely different story. Cold Mountain ends when the soldier comes home. I'd begin there. Also, it was set in a part of North Carolina that did not see any fighting. I was thinking Georgia/South Carolina, right in the path of Sherman's March.

Well, I am dropping that idea because I found myself planning a rewrite of The Heart of Darkness and Conrad already did a pretty good job of that story. Plus my research into the history of the Kansas/Missouri border war made me realize that while it was historically significant, it was not strategicly significant and not something a Confederate commander facing an immenint invasion would dedicate assets to. I also find a lot of compelling stories in the dissolution and further activites of Quatrill & Bill Andersons raiders but that has been done to death also (ever heard of Jesse James, the Outlaw Josey Wales, etc). Instead I'm looking at a story about a regular infantry officer returning home and trying to rebuild a life in the post war south. His family is missing, home has been confiscated, his country is in ruins. I might have something to work with there.

Panther win 4-3. Yesssss! That snaps a two game skid. Kudos to Chris Versteeg for two.

Not a bad idea, just not an area I'm well versed in. I'd still like to so something with the post-war south. The Reconstruction, both the good and the bad is a fascinating subject to me because it's influence can still be found even 145 years later.

Watching Panthers/Devils game right now. It was ugly at the end of the 1st with NJ leading 3-0 but the cats have battled back to 3-2. They've got a good team this year. For a change.

I see email them and please forward 100$ to my account as a token of appreciation for this awesome advice. I say do a reverse trace on that email, find who sent it, steal their identity and clean out their bank account. Now that would be irony!

Forget my previous idea... the theme has been done to death and all the story outlines I've come up with strike me as improbable. The key to good historical fiction IMHOP is if the story could have happened. Does the plot fit into the historical setting? In this case, no. The trouble is my military service has left me with the impression that the military is highly organized and moves with a great deal of coordination. That was not the case in the Civil War, particularly in the south because every state fielded it's own army. There really was no unified command as there was in the north.

Nice to see you Tarna! Had a date last night. Don't see this working out because she is afraid of dogs.... that could be trouble. But it was a nice time at least.

Stayed up intil 4 am playing FONV. Very tired today, but it was worth it.

That is bsed solely on my own observations. I put 0 research into that statement. So take that (and everythng else I tell you) with a grain of salt. Except for what is in my 401k & IRA I've gotten out of stocks all together for the time being anyway. Like you I got started about 8 years ago when I found myself with some cash I did not know what to do with and like you I am self-educated about the process. I read everything I could get my hands on and for a time I was constantly trying to "game" the market by timing the rise and fall of stock prices. It's a ton of work and it just boils down to a crapshoot. Since then I've followed a different strategy, chasing small cap stocks for short term growth and I've enjoyed a little success. It's a strategy called "Bottom Feeding". The idea is for each transaction to net a small return but you do a lot of transactions. Before long pennies become dollars, etc. A few years back I bought into a company called Conserve when their shares were at $0.40 or there abouts. I had a standing order to buy at $0.40 and sell at $0.70 (or close to it). That stock was jumping up and down back then and I'd buy and sell 1000 shares several times a week. Sometimes several times a day. Not a lot of money each time it happens but this went on for weeks before it levelled off around $0.50 or so. You get the idea. Since I got out I've gotten into commodities as we've discussed but I'm backing off that now and looking into real estate. In the US that has hit rock bottom and even if it takes years to recover the time to buy will never be better.

It's called distilling, and nah I've never tried that. Believe it or not that's actually illegal in the US and quite difficult to do. Brewing beer is easy (well, brewing beer that tastes good is not so easy). Freshly distilled whiskey is clear and almost all alcohol. It's actually only called moonshine if it's made from corn mash. Commercial distillers age the fresh whiskey in charred oak barrels for the period of time. Jack Daniels for example ages their black label for seven years. During that time it picks up it's color and flavor interacting with the barrel wood and as the ingredients in the wort begin to chemically seperate and the alcohol breaks down. Then they dilute it to reach the percentage they want becasue fresh out of the barrel it's around 120 proof. There was a great show on Discovery about that a few years back. And in some cases, whatever has been in the barrels before (say, sherry) plays a big part in the formation of the taste of the whiskey. As is the case of the above mentioned Auchentoshan. I had a boss was in the habit of saying that it's a proper gentlemanly life when you're enjoying whiskey and female company at the same time, and the whiskey has been aged longer than the female company. Though apparently he fell on tougher times and went to prison later on, I hope he didn't switch to cheaper whiskeys. Might explain how he ended up in the big house

I have tried brewing beer which is legal and there are tons of places to get equipment and ingredients from but I never could get the carbonation right. Either it was too fizzy and tasted like some weird cross between beer & ginger ale, or it was flat. I gave up after a little while. It is fun to do though.

It's called distilling, and nah I've never tried that. Believe it or not that's actually illegal in the US and quite difficult to do. Brewing beer is easy (well, brewing beer that tastes good is not so easy). Freshly distilled whiskey is clear and almost all alcohol. It's actually only called moonshine if it's made from corn mash. Commercial distillers age the fresh whiskey in charred oak barrels for the period of time. Jack Daniels for example ages their black label for seven years. During that time it picks up it's color and flavor interacting with the barrel wood and as the ingredients in the wort begin to chemically seperate and the alcohol breaks down. Then they dilute it to reach the percentage they want becasue fresh out of the barrel it's around 120 proof. There was a great show on Discovery about that a few years back. Do you work in a brewery or something? Because that was fascinating to read. No, I just watched the discovery channel. Plus I am a connoisseur of fine bourbon. One correction though, it's oxidation not alcohol that causes the chemical breakdown while aging in the barrel. I guess I sould proof read before hitting "add reply" huh? IMHOP the best bourbon whiskey in the world is Knob Creek Small Batch. It's bottled at "barrel strength", undiluted like the regular brand which gives it a bit more heat but the wort uses molasses for the fermentation rather than corn sugar which gives it a more earthy flavor. More smoky, less nuttly like the regular brand. It's a little bit more expensive but I never drink more than one or two glasses a night anymore so I'm going for quality over quantity these days.

It's called distilling, and nah I've never tried that. Believe it or not that's actually illegal in the US and quite difficult to do. Brewing beer is easy (well, brewing beer that tastes good is not so easy). Freshly distilled whiskey is clear and almost all alcohol. It's actually only called moonshine if it's made from corn mash. Commercial distillers age the fresh whiskey in charred oak barrels for the period of time. Jack Daniels for example ages their black label for seven years. During that time it picks up it's color and flavor interacting with the barrel wood and as the ingredients in the wort begin to chemically seperate and the alcohol breaks down. Then they dilute it to reach the percentage they want becasue fresh out of the barrel it's around 120 proof. There was a great show on Discovery about that a few years back.

I grilled some venison (marinated in whisky, garlic, olive oil, onion powder, and salt) with mushrooms & zuchinni for dinner. I just poured a glass of nine year old bourbon (Knob Creek of course) with two ice cubes and now I'm gonna play fallout New Vegas. Ceaser's boys better watch out, I'm coming in loaded!

I've GOT to remember that line! Too funny!

There is never a bad time to invest in securities if you are careful. You need to understand why a stock rises and falls, and what makes a company profitable. I think in the last thread I went into some detail about EBITA and the types of debt that a company can carry. The reason why we have the iPod, iPhone, etc today is because that in the late 1980s Apple had a strong earning percentage with a low debt service. This means they had the capital for long term R&D projects like that. You just will not see that kind of explosive growth from a company like IBM for a number of reasons, the biggest of which is they do not have the capital to do that without a serious reorganization. Thry sub most of that anyway. I know Krezack is looking at loading his portfolio with dividend paying stocks. Unless you are putting in a LOT of money that is a fine long term choice but it will not get you the 10% near term goal you are looking for. The best way to hit 10-20% near term growth is small cap stocks where small variations in trading volume can swing the price. Dividends are just pennies on the share most of the time so unless you have a hell of a lot of stock we're not talking about a lot of money. Also dividend paying stocks are usually have a huge volume of shares and are not very actively traded because the folks who own hundreds of thousands of share are counting on those dividends so they are only actively bought and sold by speculators (people like us) so the price stays fairly stable. They will not grow in value at any great rate over the years. I have five rules for stock investing. They are: 1) Know your exit before you enter. Never buy a stock without know exactly what you want to sell it at and you are reasonably sure it will hit your mark based on your research. 2) Never adjust your stop loss once you've decided what it is. 3) Diversify 4) Diversify 5) Diversify.

Keep fighting Tarna, we're all thinking of you!

We talked about that in June IIRC it was going for around $170-$180 and today it is at $187 with a lot of up and down since. Mostly down, it peaked somewhere north of $200 very briefly this year and hasn't sniffed it since. Like I said back then, there is not a lot to love about IBM if you are looking for rapid growth. If you're looking for 10-20yr performance it is a fair choice, but you would not have to look hard to find better ones. It really comes down to what your expectations are. I think Krecack bought in somewhere around $10k. If the goal is a safe place to park that money where it will likely pay better than bank interest then a company like IBM is the way to go.

My dad used to rub bourbon on my gums when I was teething as a baby I heard. My mom was afraid it would make me a drunk. Oh.... wait... Serously I've heard that works.

Fio, any word from Tarna?

The Ultimate Edition (or something) was announced recently, which is basically that except it's not called GOTY. It's coming in early Feb. 2012. That figures.